questo il contributo di Sinistra Ecologia e Libertà :

Dear comrades,

first of all it is our pleasure to take part in
the first meeting of the Forum of the South, Sinistra Ecologia Libertà
looks forward working together from now on to challenge the austerity
paradigm and struggle for a refoundation of Europe based on real
democracy, environmental and social justice and dignity for all. In
parallel to the forum of the South, SEL is holding its program
conference titled Human Factor, where we will host – among others –
laboratories on TTIP, the Green New Deal, and a European laboratory with
representatives of various parties of the left in Europe to discuss
possibilities of collaboration and common work. So we see the creation
of the Forum of the South and our attendance as an integral part of our
strategy to contribute to a broad European movement towards challenging
austerity and ideally and politically connected to our initiative.

We have been going through the draft declaration and we agree with the
messages and elements contained therein. We just have a few suggestions
for integration that we would like to share

a. Reject Austerity, build political Europe

It is vital that parallel to the challenging of the austerity paradigm
we work to relaunch a political process for the refounding of Europe, by
supporting a broad movement for the review of existing Treaties or
possibly a new “constituent” process and a consistent engagement of
social movements in the redesigning of the political and social bases
for a new Europe. While it is not clear what the final outcome of this
process can be, it is important that we refer to it, and to the prospect
of the construction of a federal Europe, based on different
assumptions. Expanded powers to the European Parliament, the reform of
the BCE to become a lender of last resort and issuer of Eurobonds, the
creation of a European Fiscal Agency. A European Budget, for instance
are parts of this process towards a federal Europe. Parallel to that we
think there is a need to expose the process of creation of informal and
undemocratic fora, that escape public and citizens’ control and
accountability while aggravating the Union’s democratic deficit. The EP
has addressed the issue when criticizing the Trojka and the Semester as
illegitimate bodies and hinting to the need to exclude any further
agreement made through the intergovernmental method while reaffirming
the central role of the European Parliament as a key prerequisite
towards a banking, budgetary and economic union. The EP also affirmed
that the Eurogroup and related bodies are not legitimized to take any
decision as to the governance of the Economic and Monetary Union. So the
rejection of the Troika and austerity paradigm should be accompanied by
a relaunch of the process towards the construction of a political
Europe, a constituent process where social movements and citizens would
play a key role, and the support to immediate measures to tackle the
social and human effects of the crisis, such as a Social Stability Pact,
that would fund programs in support of crucial areas such as public
health, and to those classes that have been mostly affected by the
crisis and in support of a European basic income.

b. The European Conference on Debt

We agree with the analysis and proposals contained in the ATTAC
contribution , especially when they refer to the connection between the
European Conference and a process of citizens’ audits of debt, to define
what debt is to be considered as illegitimate and hence written off and
what should be subject to renegotiation through a fair and transparent
arbitration procedures. We think that reference to audits and FTAPs
could be made explicit in the final declaration. In terms of mobilizing,
we would also suggest to include a commitment to mobilization and
support for the international call of Blockupy Frankfurt, in occasion of
the inauguration of the BCE Eurotower in Frankfurt on March 18th, when
the call for a European Conference on Debt will be reiterated.
Challenging the legitimacy of debt is also key to understand the
responsibilities and related actions to be undertaken to make those
responsible accountable. A Conference on Debt would also be important to
identify the violations of human rights caused by debt and austerity
programs and imagine the possibility to recourse to international human
rights bodies to seek justice.

c. Reform of the banking system and access to credit

We agree with the proposal for a “Glass-Steagall” like measure in
Europe that partly reflect the proposals of the Liikanen report adopted
by the European Parliament and on the need to reactivate access to
credit for small and medium size entreprises. We would also expand the
possibility to other actors that do not necessarily qualify as SME, but
rather operate in the microfinance, in alternative economies and
transition economies. The access to credit can be an important leverage
in support of the creation of jobs and the Green New Deal to the
condition that credit is not turned into a hidden subsidy for
investments with potential negative environmental impact. So we suggest
that measures are proposed to ensure that access to credit is a tool to
connect SME and other economic actors into the process towards a Green
New Deal. Parallel to access to “green” credit, fiscal measures will
have to be proposed and adopted : a “true” tax on financial
transactions, a redistributive tax system at a European scale .

d. Green New Deal

We believe that financial debt and ecological debt are two sides of the
same coin. This is why we believe that parallel to challenging the
system of production of financial debt and tackling the responsibilities
and consequences of financial debt as well as the systemic changes
needed at a political level, we will have to tackle ecological debt.
This is even more important in connection to the emergency of climate
change and in the light of the upcoming Paris COP21 on Climate Change.
Tackling ecological debt requires strong actions to create the
preconditions for a true Green New Deal. That means for instance
challenging the extractivist paradigm that not only extracts value from
the commons but also resources such as fossil fuels. We believe that a
clear message needs to be sent to governments and companies alike and
that no further expansion of fossil fuel exploration and extraction
would have to be allowed. A recent study by Nature shows that in order
to keep the increase of global temperature by 2 degrees centigrades, as
much as 82 % of the known global fossil fuel reserves need to be kept
underground. Roughly 670 billion USD are spent every year by companies
to look for new fossil fuel resources and this money should rather be
conveyed to support energy transition , energy efficiency and small
scale renewables. A Green New Deal requires a radical change, whereas
the extraction of market and financial value from the environmental
commons needs to be challenged. This in turn would create an enabling
condition to revert the flow of financial resources from extractivist
and speculative to clean, fair and just activities. We also believe that
challenging the TTIP is key to create the enabling conditions for a
Green New Deal. The Investor to State Dispute Resolution clauses, the
removal of non-tariff barriers, the potential inclusion of procurement
policies and agriculture in the negotiations would on the one hand
affect the possibility of public investments and regulations in support
of a Green New Deal, expand the market possibilities for unconventional
fossil fuels such as shale gas and shale oil, and on the other ensure
the access to industrially produced food that would jeopardize small
scale quality and ecological food production that can contribute to the
protection of the commons and of landscape and biodiversity.